I am going to look at different time frames in society and discuss examples of portraiture used, discussing the social implications behind this type of art and whether or not it is to show individuals or whether it is part of society as a whole.
James Gunn was an artist who lived from 1893 til 1964. For
the start of his career he was a landscape painter and he spent a lot of time
travelling and exhibiting his works until around 1929 where he became
increasingly devoted solely to portrait paintings. My first example of
portraits we can read into to discuss the social context at the time is
“Conversation Piece (G.K. Chesterton; Maurice Baring; Hilaire Belloc)”. This
painting from 1932 is a portrait of 3 men; the idea for this painting is said
to have come to Gunn as an idea of a gift for Hilaire Belloc's 60th
Birthday. This was at a time just before the second world war where men were in
charge and and the money makers of the family while their wives were expected
to stay at home and take care of the family and home. It wasn’t until the start
of the war when women started to become empowered but until then it was the
gentlemen of the country who ran it.
Hilaire Belloc was a writer, one of the most prolific in
England at the time and was well known for a variety of things as well as a
writer. He was also known for his poetry, his work as a soldier and a political
activist, to name a few. These attributes lead him to become quite high up within
the english heirarchy and so was quite well off in terms of wealth. We can see
this is reflected in the image. Several things indicate wealth in the image and
thus reflect on society and there place within it. One of these indicators are
the large gold frame for a painting commission. At the time not many people
could afford to commission paintings in general, much less one of that size and
this suggests that the people in the image value traditional painting which
could suggest that they want to show other people how cultured they are.
Another thing that suggests wealth and is possibly the most obvious is the
attire; the suits the men are wearing suggest class, an outwards portrayal of
being a gentleman. Men wear suits to show the rest of the world that they are
respectable, successful and important. The shoes we can see are gentleman's
shoes with a high shine suggesting they treat them well and get them cleaned
and shined regularly.
The pose of the figures also enforces a feeling of power and
success as they don't acknowledge the audience. The figures are too enthralled
in what is being written down or noted which suggests it has more importance
than the everyday spectator which creates a feeling of the men being more
important or of a higher class than the viewers. The final component suggesting
wealth in the image is the room itself, with clean walls and a high quality
finish with the dado rail that cuts through the center of the wall, its use is
to protect the wall from chairs damaging it. The act of protecting something
suggests it has worth and therefore the house must be quite valuable and
because it has clean walls this suggests the house gets cleaned, possibly by
someone who it hired to do so.
By analyzing this painting we can see that it falls in to
both categories where it does depict its subjects but there is also a social
context for it as well. It represents the individuals as part of a larger group
in society within the higher classes.
